Search the Dictionary

The act of moving or revolving around, or as in a circle or orbit; a revolution; as, the periodical circuit of the earth round the sun. Watts.

ancient Greeks and Romans, esp. to Greek or Roman authors of the highest rank, or of the period when their best literature was produced; of or pertaining to places inhabited by the ancient Greeks and Romans, or rendered famous by their deeds. Though throned midst Latium's classic plains. Mrs. Hemans. The epithet class…

A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place in the constitution. The critical periods are thought by some to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9; to which others add the 81st year.

To bring to an end or period; to conclude; to complete; to finish; to end; to consummate; as, to close a bargain; to close a course of instruction. One frugal supper did our studies close. Dryden.

Of the same age; existing during the same period of time, especially time long and remote; -- usually followed by with. Silence! coeval with eternity! Pope. Oaks coeval spread a mournful shade. Cowper.

a usurpation of supreme power on the part of representatives chosen by the communes; the period of its continuance is known as the "Reign of Terror." (b) The revolutionary government, modeled on the commune of 1792, which the communists, so called, attempted to establish in 1871.

One who accompanies or is in company with another for a longer or shorter period, either from choice or casually; one who is much in the company of, or is associated with, another or others; an associate; a comrade; a consort; a partner. The companions of his fall. Milton. The companion of fools shall smart for it. Pro…

Effecting confiscation; characterized by confiscations. "Confiscatory and exterminatory periods." Burke.

ial labor. E. Everett. Congressional District, one of the divisions into which a State is periodically divided (according to population), each of which is entitled to elect a Representative to the Congress of the United States.

Of or pertaining to the lowest period of the Devonian age.(See the Diagram, under Geology.) The Corniferous period has been so called from the numerous seams of hornstone which characterize the later part of the period, as developed in the State of New York.

One who communicates information, etc., by letter or telegram to a newspaper or periodical.

Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period.

hence, the place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence; as, a cradle of crime; the cradle of liberty. The cradle that received thee at thy birth. Cowper. No sooner was I crept out of my cradle But I was made a king, at nine months old. Shak.

ht; glimmering; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous. This semihistorical and crepuscular period. Sir G. C. Lewis.

ata of various kinds, including beds of chalk, green sand, etc., formed in the Cretaceous period; -- called also the chalk formation. See the Diagram under Geology. -- Cretaceous period (Geol.), the time in the latter part of the Mesozoic age during which the Cretaceous formation was deposited.

Of, pertaining to, or designating, the period of time following the Jurassic and preceding the Eocene.

A system of prison discipline employing for consecutive periods cellular confinement, associated imprisonment under the mark system, restraint intermediate between imprisonment and freedom, and liberation on ticket of leave.

n others. They are found chiefly in countris inhabited by the ancient Celts, and are of a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity into these countries.

mpleted, and then returns again and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of something peculiar; as, the cucle of the seasons, or of the year. Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the medium of provision during the last bad cycle of twenty years.…

The period of the earth's revolution on its axis. -- ordinarily divided into twenty-four hours. It is measured by the interval between two successive transits of a celestial body over the same meridian, and takes a specific name from that of the body. Thus, if this is the sun, the day (the interval between two success…